By Scott Wright
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, we have witnessed an unprecedented assault, not only on immigrants and their families, but on the very heart of our democracy and the institutions upon which it depends.
In cities and communities across the nation, we are witnessing “a comprehensive governmental assault designed to produce fear and terror,” in the words of Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington DC, at a mass to commemorate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on September 28, which was held following a three-hour procession of immigrants and faithful through the streets of the nation’s capital:
“As a Church, we must console and peacefully stand in solidarity with the undocumented men and women whose lives are being upended by the government’s campaign of fear and terror … Courage and sacrifice must be the hallmark of our actions at this moment of historic and deliberate suffering being visited upon people living truly good lives that are a credit to our society … As citizens,” he added, “we must not be silent as this profound injustice is carried out in our name.”
“An unprecedented assault on immigrants and their families”
In major cities across the United States, and in rural communities, wherever immigrants work and reside, we have witnessed military assaults by National Guard, US military, Border Patrol and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sowing fear and terror in our communities, literally kidnapping immigrants off of the streets, breaking into cars, workplaces and homes, to arrest, detain, and eventually deport immigrants, the vast majority of whom have no criminal record.
During the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the president – through dozens of Executive Orders – has severely restricted or entirely dismantled our refugee resettlement and asylum programs, terminated State Department grants to 10 resettlement agencies – including Migration and Refugee Services of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops – and effectively sealed the US-Mexico border. Refugees and migrants already approved to settle in the United States or to pursue their asylum claims had the door slammed in their face.
In the face of these cruel and demeaning actions – in many cases challenged by federal judges as both illegal and unconstitutional – immigrants and those who represent and defend their rights have fought back, protesting ICE incursions into immigrant communities, suing the government in federal courts, or protesting in front of immigration detention centers and local ICE offices.
On the eve of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Pax Christi USA held a vigil in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) national headquarters to make a moral appeal to members of the Trump administration and ICE officials to end the raids on immigrant communities and to release those unjustly detained, echoing the words of St. Oscar Romero when he called on the military in El Salvador to stop the repression:
“As people of faith, as descendants of immigrants ourselves, we are called to love and welcome our neighbor, not to arrest, detain and deport them. When a human order to oppress or harm another human is given, for Christians and people of faith such an order must be subordinate to God’s law of love. No ICE agent is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time for those carrying out the current unjust immigration policy to obey their consciences rather than a sinful order.”
How exactly did we get to this moment? There is plenty of blame to pass around, including leaders of both political parties in Congress and in several administrations who have failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. But this year is different. The words and actions of the past nine months of the Trump administration are especially egregious and of great concern, not only for vulnerable immigrant communities, but also for our democracy.
“As you bear witness in the nation’s capital you are affirming human dignity and upholding the common good … Immigrants have made us stronger and better and will continue to do so. Let us remember the biblical imperative that we welcome the stranger and recognize that it is Christ himself whom we welcome.” – Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv, Bishop President of Pax Christi USA
“I fully expect the Church to be persecuted”
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, has often affirmed the commitment of the Church to defend and protect immigrants, and recognized the values and contributions that immigrants make to our country, beginning with their deep faith. But increasingly, his comments point to the urgency of the moment:
“There is a prophetic dimension to this work … Our solidarity must be visible. The way of love cannot be hidden under a bushel basket. It must be embodied, incarnate, and public … I fully expect the Church to be persecuted.”
At a gathering at Fordham University in September, sponsored by the Center for Migration Studies and Hope Border Institute and attended by 300 people, Bishop Seitz painted a grim picture of the state of our democracy:
“What we are seeing is that migrants are scapegoats in a crisis with much deeper roots … Migrants are the canaries in the coal mine. There are deeper issues here – including how we understand the nature of public life and our democracy, and how we draw the lines of who belongs and who doesn’t … We can’t ignore the seams that are falling apart in the American Project … and we can’t ignore the slide into authoritarianism that we are witnessing …
“I’m very concerned about the deployment of the military and the broader federal law enforcement apparatus in support of immigration enforcement … but I’m also very disturbed by the recent Supreme Court decision that gives the government carte blanche to target people for enforcement because they look Latino, because they speak Spanish or because they work hard.”
Where do we go from here? What are we going to build for our children? How are we going to give life to the Gospel in our social context now? “That,” the bishop said, “depends on us.”
Increased deportations and detentions
Pax Christi USA has vigorously condemned the administration for enabling mass deportations, militarizing immigration enforcement, expanding detention infrastructure, and effectively ending asylum, violating not only the rights and dignity of millions of immigrants and their families, but also the traditions that have made our country a beacon to refugees fleeing violence and persecution the world over. And it’s only going to get worse.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, in the first 200 days of the Trump administration, 352,000 immigrants have been detained, and of that number 324,000 deported, equivalent to 1,620 deportations a day.
With the beginning of the new fiscal year (October 1), tens of billions of dollars each year will be dedicated to hiring an additional 10,000 ICE agents, opening 300 additional ICE offices, and building new ICE detention centers, doubling the capacity to house 100,000 immigrants. These detention facilities, what some in the press have characterized as “concentration camps,” are run by for-profit private prison agencies like Geo Group and Core Civic. Especially concerning is the use of artificial intelligence to target and track immigrants and their families, as a new report on the Palantir corporation reveals how the government is stepping up its enforcement efforts.
We have all seen the scenes of fear and terror, and sometimes witnessed them in our own communities, as masked ICE agents have detained immigrant women and men, and sometimes children – sometimes violently, leaving a trail of grieving mothers and fathers and children as their families are literally ripped apart. In the words of Cardinal Robert McElroy:
“Our government is engaged in – by its own admission and by the tumultuous enforcement actions it has launched – a comprehensive campaign to uproot millions of families and hard-working men and women who have come to our country seeking a better life … This campaign relies on fear at its core, for the government knows that it cannot succeed in its efforts except by bringing new dimensions of fear and terror into our country’s history and life.”
Solidarity with immigrants is an act of faith and justice
In the face of this assault on immigrants, Pax Christi USA has joined local churches across the country in innumerable ways to protect and defend immigrant families, organizing know your rights trainings to empower immigrants, staffing emergency response networks to be present when ICE agents appear in a neighborhood, accompanying immigrants to their ICE check-ins or court appearances, and praying and protesting in front of ICE detention centers.
Last spring, Pax Christi Little Rock joined Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore to Jena, Louisiana to vigil and protest the imminent deportation of immigrants sent to that private detention facility. For many months, Pax Christi New Jersey has prayed and protested before the Delaney ICE detention facility in Newark (right), supporting immigrant families and engaging ICE officers to consider the consequences of their actions.
Pax Christi members in several Catholic dioceses, including Los Angeles, Detroit, and Tacoma have also joined with local churches to protest the draconian ICE raids on immigrant communities, often aided by local law enforcement, the US military, and the National Guard. And for the past nine months, Pax Christi USA’s Immigration Working Group continues to coordinate efforts to stand in solidarity with immigrant families across Pax Christi regions throughout the nation.
As ICE raids spread fear and terror in immigrant communities, Washington DC Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjiver-Ayala, who came to this country from El Salvador as an undocumented immigrant, responded that the Church’s solidarity with immigrants and their families is “an action of faith and justice.”
“The Church has made the cause of the poor its own, because it understands that it is also the cause of Christ … For us, the defense of the poor and the persecuted is not party politics, but a demand of the Gospel.”
Use this link to read about the One Church One Family Catholic Public Witness for Immigrants, October 22 and November 13. We encourage Pax Christi local and regional groups and Pax Christi members to participate: Dioceses, parishes, schools, religious communities, and other institutions and organizations are invited to
host public actions that lift up the dignity of migrants—especially in the places where that dignity is most often denied. This may be a vigil in front of a detention center, a prayer service at a place where migrants were publicly detained, or a rosary accompanying people who are going to immigration court hearings. We call on all Catholics to witness to the richness of our traditions and teachings on migration, and to stand against the campaign of terror currently being waged against immigrants in this country.
The update on the solidarity of some of the American Catholic hierarchy by Scott Wright sparks hope and simultaneously begs the question why our Catholic Conference of United States Bishops has to vote on whether or not to demand that all Catholic Christians join in solidarity with migrants and openly reject the Trumpian program of ethnic cleansing. The USCCB certainly displays no timidity when it comes to abortion,
homosexuality or any issue even remotely sexual. Blessed and happy the flocks shepherded by the likes of Cardinal McElroy and El Paso’s fearless Bishop Seitz. In our parish, part of a huge very Spanish-speaking Archdiocese, we have had sermon references lauding Charlie Kirk and trashing Archbishop Cupich but not so much a word about the dehumanization of immigrants, as if we’ve all been here since the Middle Ages.
David-Ross Gerling, PhD